Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions her Department has had with the DVLA on levels of fraud.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA)’s Driver and Vehicle Account provides motorists with a single online place to access all its services and information. The account allows customers to update their driving licence and vehicle information. To open an account, customers must verify their identify through GOV.UK One Login and this verification process includes an external identity check for verification of personal details, including the address. Information about the account can be found at www.gov.uk/driver-vehicles-account.

Anyone applying for a driving licence for the first time must provide evidence of their identity so that the DVLA can verify and authenticate them. While there is no requirement for an applicant to verify their address, the DVLA does ask applicants applying online to provide current and historical addresses where appropriate to help the identity verification process.

The DVLA also requires proof of identity when a vehicle is first registered. To ensure services are customer friendly and cost effective, when a subsequent application is sent to change the details of a registered keeper there is no requirement to provide proof of identity or address.

It is already an offence to provide false or misleading information and there are no plans to introduce additional checks for driving licence applications or vehicle transactions.

The DVLA’s operational fraud team monitors both vehicle and driving licence records for evidence of fraud and acts on intelligence received from the police and other sources. This includes investigating possible anomalies in the use of addresses provided.